Feliks Nowowiejski - Oratorium 'Quo vadis' (2016)
Feliks Nowowiejski - Oratorium 'Quo vadis' (2016)
CD1 1. Scene Ia 2. Scene Ib 3. Scene IIa 4. Scene IIb 5. Scene Iic CD2 1. Scene IIIa 2. Scene IIIb 3. Scene IIIc 4. Scene IIId 5. Scene IVa 6. Scene IVb 7. Scene V – Finale Olga Rusin – soprano Sebastian Szumski – baritone Jacek Ozimkowski – bass Chór Górecki Chamber Choir The Symphony Orchestra of the Feliks Nowowiejski Warmia and Mazury Philharmonic Piotr Sułkowski – conductor Krakow Philharmonic Hall, 30.06.2016.
During his stay in Rome in 1903, Feliks Nowowiejski, at the height of his fame after receiving the prestigious Giacomo Meyerbeer award, set out to compose an oratorio based on the novel Quo vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz. However, he was not the first composer who thought about a musical version of this captivating story from the times of Emperor Nero. Five years before, another Polish composer Emil Mlynarski, began working on his opera Ligia, which, however, remained unfinished. Although to this day at least six opera reinterpretations of Quo Vadis have been staged, none of them came even close to the achievement of the 26-year-old Nowowiejski in terms of the scale of artistic success. The score, consisting of five parts, shows some influence of great tableaux evoking the style of Meyerbeer’s grand opera; it also contains Liszt-style leitmotifs, impressive quasi-Handel choral parts and a modernized neo-Bach counterpoint, which is possibly an influence of Max Reger. ---arkivmusic.com
As the year 2016 was declared the Year of Feliks Nowowiejski by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, the philharmonic started an intensive information campaign to promote their patron. Apart from the opening ceremony of the Nowowiejski Year in Poland, which took place on 22 January 2016 in the concert hall of the philharmonic, there were other great artistic events: concerts of the oratorio Quo vadis: first on 30 June 2016 during the final event of the 50. International Festival of Organ Music in Cracow, and then on 28 August in the home town of Feliks Nowowiejski, Barczewo, where it was played for the first time. The works of the composer of Rota (The Oath) were included in the repertoire of the 70th jubilee season 2015/2016. The artistic plans for the year of the philharmonic’s patron include a number of ambitious undertakings, including a CD and DVD recording of Quo vadis and a three-city European tour of the opera in Warsaw, Berlin and Rome. --- filharmonia.olsztyn.pl
Oparte na motywach najsłynniejszej polskiej powieści oratorium Quo Vadis Feliksa Nowowiejskiego, premierę miało w 1909 roku w Amsterdamie, a do 1939 doczekało się około dwustu wykonań w salach koncertowych całego świata, stając się, mimo niezwykłych wymagań w dziedzinie obsady, jednym z najpopularniejszych dzieł tego rodzaju w okresie międzywojennym. Feliks Nowowiejski, urodzony w warmińskim Barczewie organista, kompozytor, pedagog i organizator życia muzycznego, twórca ponad setki różnorodnych dzieł muzycznych, w tym - być może najsławniejszej - melodii do Roty, jest patronem Filharmonii Warmińsko-Mazurskiej w Olsztynie. W jubileuszowym roku swego patrona, zespół postanowił przypomnieć jego najsłynniejsze dzieło oratoryjne. Pieczołowicie dobrana obsada, świetne przygotowanie orkiestry i udział krakowskiego chóru Górecki Chamber Choir, gwarantowały powodzenie tego projektu. ---dux.pl
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